Dr. Ahmad Kushairi Din is the Director-General of the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB). He graduated with a B.Agric.Sc, two Msc and PhD in quantitative genetics. Dr. Kushairi specializes in oil palm breeding and genetics, where together with his team of breeders, bred 13 new varities, and prospected oil palm germplasm in Africa and South America.
He authored and co-authored 270 publications. He is well connected with the scientific community and the oil palm industry both locally and abroad. He sits as a Board of Directors in Ministries and companies, member of national committees, acive in professional societies and President of The International Society for Oil Palm Breeders (ISOPB). Dr. Kushairi had served MPOB and the oil palm industry for nearly four decades since 1979.

Prolonged dry and hot weather conditions, coupled with below average rainfall brought about by the El-Nino phenomenon during the second half of 2015 and continued into the first half of 2016 had impacted the Malaysian palm oil industry performance in 2016. The year 2016 saw crude palm oil (CPO) production declining by double-digit or 13.2% to 17.32 million tonnes as against 19.96 million tonnes produced in 2015. The decrease was due to lower FFB processed, down by 12.0% arising from lower FFB yield, which declined by 13.9% and also lower oil extraction rate (OER), down by 1.4% to 20.18%. The decline in production resulted in lower palm oil closing stocks, which subsequently pushed up palm oil prices. Average CPO price in 2016 was higher by 23.2%, reaching RM2,653.00/tonne. High palm oil prices had negatively influenced exports to major markets as the discount of CPO to soyabean oil narrowed. Palm oil off-take declined by 8.1% to 16.05 million tonnes as compared to 2015 due to lower demand, especially from India, China, the EU and USA. Total exports of oil palm products declined by 8.2% to 23.29 million tonnes in 2016, down from 25.37 million tonnes exported in 2015. Nevertheless, higher palm oil prices also helped to increase the export revenue by 7.3% to RM64.58 billion from RM60.17 billion in 2015. Palm oil export revenue increased by 5.1% to RM43.37 billion as against RM41.26 billion in 2015. Total export revenue increased by 7.3% to RM64.58 billion compared to the RM60.17 billion achieved in 2015. This paper will provide an overview of the Malaysian palm oil industry in 2016, covering oil palm planted area, production, exports, imports, closing stocks and the prices of palm oil products as well as the expected performance of the industry and its market share in 2017.